212 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



prenticcships to the mechanic arts have been introduced in 

 England. The rudest African learns in three years any of the 

 common handiworks : and can the European, accustomed 

 from his childhood to see them exercised, and to handle their 

 tools and their wrought ware, require more than double the 

 time ? It is a great oppression to a young man to find his 

 labour, from eighteen to twenty-one, has been contracted for 

 by his parents at half its value, 



I once witnessed a curious debate between two negro boys 

 in a sale room where the cargo of an African ship was landed. 

 I observed all of them dancing and singing previous to getting 

 their dinners, except these two boys, who were apart from the 

 rest, and appeared from their manner of speaking and gestures, 

 to be talking on some very interesting subject. I was induced 

 to draw nearer them, when the eldest of the two explained to 

 me, by signs and broken English, (which he had acquired in 

 some of the factories on the coast of Africa, and from the 

 sailors in the course of his passage) that the other boy was 

 afraid he was going to be sold to white men to be eaten ; 

 while he had been attempting to impress on his mind, that 

 the intention of his being brought there, was to work. I soon 

 eased the boy's mind by taking him into the yard, where 

 there were some carpenters at work, and putting a hammer 

 into his hand, made him to understand that he was to learn to 

 build houses and work with the carpenters ; at which, he 



